After the 2012 season crumpled to an end with the
Rangers looking sluggish and stupefied down the stretch, manager Ron Washington
made a stunning admission that he may have played his starters “into the
ground.”

Washington left the distinct impression he would learn and use his bench
more.

This, of course, assumes he has a bench to use.

The Rangers have spent the off-season chasing some big fish, adjusting on the
fly when they missed out on the first wave and continuing to monitor potential
game-changers. The bench, however, has gone untouched.

With less than a month to go until spring training begins, the only
announcement the Rangers have made is that top prospects Jurickson Profar and
Mike Olt will not be on it. Either they will have full-time roles or they will
begin the season in the minors.

While the team has a legitimate option at backup catcher in Geovany Soto, the
infield and outfield options are, well, thin to say the least.

At present, the options for backup middle infielders are Leury Garcia and
Yangervis Solarte. Combined, they have exactly zero games of major league
experience. For corner spots, there are Brandon Snyder and Brandon Allen, who
combined for 85 at-bats in 2012.

The Rangers will have one backup outfielder built in from the Craig
Gentry/Leonys Martin combination in center field. Behind that guy: either Julio
Borbon, Engel Beltre, Jim Adduci — none of whom played in the majors last year —
and Aaron Cunningham, the second-greatest position player ever to come out of
Alaska. It’s not exactly a robust field. It totals six players. Cunningham, who
hit .175 for Cleveland in 2012, is a career .219 hitter in 452 at-bats over the
last five years.

In addition, new designated hitter Lance Berkman is not as versatile as
Michael Young, who could play all four infield positions. Berkman, coming off
two knee surgeries in the last year, may be limited to DH duties at the start of
the year and could play some first and some outfield later.

“We’re still looking at options to upgrade the bench, and that may continue
into the spring,” Rangers general manager Jon Daniels said.

It’s been a common refrain over the last couple of years.

With a sturdy and young club, the Rangers have not put much priority during
the early stages of the winter on finding bench help. And then, because of the
perceived lack of playing time available, few veteran free agents who want to
keep their careers going want to take the Rangers’ money to sit on the
bench.

And there was so much sitting going on, a guy could go on the DL with saddle
sores. A year ago, the Rangers’ top nine players took 5,320 of the team’s 6,216
total plate appearances — 85.6 percent. It was the highest percentage in the AL.
The team with the second-highest percentage, the Chicago White Sox (83.2
percent), also faded down the stretch and lost a division title.

It’s also an area where the Rangers have tried to get by on the cheap. A year
ago, the Rangers’ opening day bench, which remained intact for the first four
months of the season, was Yorvit Torrealba, Alberto Gonzalez, Gentry and Snyder.
They spent $4.9 million on that group, with Torrealba ($3.2 million) taking up
the great majority of the money.

In 2011, the bench was a little deeper with Mike Napoli starting out there.
He was joined by David Murphy before he took over for Borbon and Andres Blanco.
But, come the postseason, the Rangers were left with the likes of Esteban German
to take critical at-bats.

In 2010, the Rangers restructured the bench as spring training progressed,
adding Ryan Garko, who was a bust, and Blanco, who was a boon. Over the course
of the season, they tried to strengthen it by giving auditions to the likes of
Jorge Cantu, Alex Cora and Cristian Guzman. None panned out.

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